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The planned absorption of Siemens' Dutch pension plan by its much larger cousin, the €18.7bn ($26bn) industry-wide scheme PME, has been put on hold following investment losses at both schemes last year. The hiatus is the latest example of the turmoil the credit crunch has wreaked on the €550bn Dutch pensions industry.

The €545m Stichting Pensioenfonds Siemens looked at the option of merging into Pensions Metalektro or PME, last year, in a move aimed at cutting costs and generating better returns for its members, according to the news service MandateWire.

Sako Zeverijn, pensions manager at Siemens, confirmed the plans were on hold for the moment. In late 2008 both schemes' solvency ratios dropped below the minimum 105% level set by the Netherlands' central bank, which regulates pension funds. Their top priority is now to work on their recovery plans.

The SPS has therefore restarted a programme of investment shifts that it first planned last year. Following sales of a property portfolio handled by BlackRock, and a bonds portfolio run by ING Investment Management, the SPS was carring €150m in cash and financial instruments at the start of the year, but has begun to put this back into the stock market.

The SPS still plans to merge with PME in the long-term, Zeverijn said. The Dutch pensions management industry has been steadily consolidating over the past few years, creating large asset management groups like Mn Services, which runs the PME and PMT funds, the third and fourth-biggest.

Regulatory reforms that took effect from the start of 2008 also allowed APG Groep and PGGM Investments, the in-house asset managers for the two biggest pension schemes, to take on third-party business. Other pensions managers are expanding overseas, like Mn or Cardano, which have set up in the UK.

But the credit crunch has disrupted many plans, forcing schemes to focus on their own problems. In December, Mn was forced to abandon a planned merger with Syntrus Achmea, which would have created a €143bn pensions management giant.